ADD Coaching and Medication: Making The Path Easier
The decision to take medication to treat ADHD is certainly not black and white.
You may have questions, which require that you spend a fair amount of time seeking out satisfactory answers before you can make the right decision for yourself.
- Why take any medication to treat your ADHD?
- Who is the best person to prescribe?
- How do you find the right professional in your community?
- What is the role of medication as part of a holistic treatment plan?
- What is the right medication?
- How do I know if it is working?
- What do I do if it does not work at first?
I addressed some of these questions in my article, Putting the Pieces Together: Treating Your ADHD.
As of late, I have been thinking more specifically about the relationship between coaching and medication. That is, do clients who take medication fare any better and proceed with more ease in the coaching process?
This question was prompted by my recognition that finding the right prescriber and the right medication entails trial and error for many clients.
Some give up because they question whether it is worth it.
It is such a hassle finding the right professional and the right medication! I don’t have the time for this. Maybe I should just give up.
Role of Medication
As I’ve written about in the past, medication to treat ADHD serves to correct a condition. “…stimulants work by correcting a biochemical condition in the brain that interferes with attention and impulse control.”
ADHD medication does not give you an “unfair advantage,” as some believe. Rather, It serves to level the playing field. If you are diagnosed with ADHD, medication may help you to make the choices that work for you in the moment.
That is, medication can make the path easier, but the RX will not come with instructions on which path to take.
What can you do to help you decide which path to choose?
Learning New Skills and Strategies
We know that, if you have your recommended servings of fruits and vegetable, that does not mean that you do not need the recommended servings of whole grains in order to be healthy.
Medication may help, but is not a substitute for learning or refining your skills in areas, like:
- time management
- financial management
- communication
- task completion
You still need the recommended serving of whole grains to be healthy. If you decide to take medication to manage your ADHD, you still need to incorporate other forms of treatment, as well.
Role of Coaching
Through coaching you will raise your awareness of the impact of your ADHD symptom. You will also learn what you can do to address these challenges, learn new skills, and adopt those strategies that work best for you.
Learning and becoming more self aware is a critical part of the coaching process. While knowing is important, being able to act on this knowledge is an important part of why people come to coaching.
In my experience, clients, for whom medication is effective, find it easier to:
- become more self aware
- experiment with new tools, strategies and skills
- persist when their initial efforts do not work
- implement the tools, strategies and skills that do work for them
- adopt new habits
They find it easier to act.
Makes sense, right? Medication facilitates attention and impulse control, allowing you to make better choices.
What choices do you want to make?
What kind of support do you need?
